{"id":14020,"date":"2016-06-23T08:00:28","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T15:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=14020"},"modified":"2016-06-22T14:18:08","modified_gmt":"2016-06-22T21:18:08","slug":"beer-touring-bear-roots-brewing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2016\/06\/23\/beer-touring-bear-roots-brewing\/","title":{"rendered":"Beer Touring: Bear Roots Brewing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bearroots_01\"<\/a>It\u2019s only been open since December, but already the husband-and-wife founders of Bear Roots Brewing and Home Brew Shop <\/strong><\/a>(1213 Santa Fe Street, Vista)<\/em> are convinced enough by early success that it\u2019s time to take a plunge into the deep-end of the brewing industry. During the last stop of a day of beer-touring, I conversed with brewer Terry Little<\/strong>, who is pushing all of his chips to the center of the table, expanding his fermentation space to match the growing demand for his liquid wares. With only six months under his business\u2019 belt, you\u2019re probably wondering what I was\u2014is the beer good enough to warrant such faith? My answer is yes.<\/p>\n

\"Bear<\/a>
Bear Roots Brewing owner and brewer Terry Little<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The beer is good enough. In fact, the day I was there, the beer was of better quality from top-to-bottom than most of the newer breweries I\u2019ve visited in 2016. Quality alone won\u2019t dictate whether early expansion will pay off, but it\u2019s the most important factor for a brewery-owner to consider. And it will be interesting to see how (the currently aptly named) Little does ramping things up with the little brewery he\u2019s installed within his homebrew shop. The new operation has nearly eclipsed the original after installation of a bar and abutting cold-box plus enough seating to accommodate the steady flow of patrons coming in mostly for beer as opposed to the ingredients and mechanisms for producing their own.<\/p>\n

\"bearroots_02\"<\/a>On my visit, a half-dozen beers were available. Others had sold out, a common occurrence at Bear Roots, where the house-beers are produced in small, two-barrel batches after double brew-days on Little\u2019s one-barrel system. Fortunately, a house favorite, Bear Cookie, was up for grabs. A chocolate-peanut butter stout brewed with raw cocoa, naked oats, English malts and noble hops, it\u2019s a dessert-lovers beery dream come true. Nutty, chocolaty and coating, it\u2019s soothing like a glass of warm milk, but at just 6.66% alcohol-by-volume (ABV), it won\u2019t put you to sleep like that moo-juice.<\/p>\n

\"bearroots_03\"<\/a>Beers on the non-roasty side of the spectrum were also very impressive. I particularly enjoyed Rooted in Nelson, a bone-dry American India pale ale (IPA) with Nelson Sauvin hops added at every stage of brewing and fermentation. Passion-fruit with a touch of toastiness best describes its aroma, while the flavor profile is Sauvignon Blanc grapes with watercress-like bitterness and a touch of pink-peppercorn spice. Brewed with Mosaic and Simcoe hops, Bear Roots American pale ale had a similarly peppery finish, a nose of fresh-cut grass and a light-body that made it incredibly crushable.<\/p>\n

\"bearroots_05\"<\/a>Less satisfying was Edinburgh, an English-style pale ale that was to-style, but pretty dull\u2014a typical San Diego beer-fan lament. For my money, I preferred Bite the Bullet, a Belgian-style tripel aged multiple months on bourbon whiskey-soaked oak-chips. At 12.6% ABV it\u2019s big and sweet, as one might expect, but not overly boozy. Orangey yeast esters mesh well with a honey sweetness and light vanilla notes.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no telling what the future holds for Bear Roots, but with beer that not only exhibits zero defects but tastes good while offering substantial diversity (provided not too many kegs blow during service), the basis for a brighter tomorrow is there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s only been open since December, but already the husband-and-wife founders of Bear Roots Brewing and Home Brew Shop (1213 Santa Fe Street, Vista) are convinced enough by early success that it\u2019s time to take a plunge into the deep-end of the brewing industry. During the last stop of a day of beer-touring, I conversed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":14021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[368,369,287,1],"tags":[1353,2857,2086,376,1732,442,391,2856,1098,1739,2483,1010,2858,1858,2052,1439,2859,2855,44,1637],"class_list":{"0":"post-14020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-beer-news","8":"category-beer-styles","9":"category-homebrewing","10":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","11":"tag-sdbeer","12":"tag-bear-cookie","13":"tag-bear-roots","14":"tag-beer","15":"tag-beer-touring","16":"tag-brandon-hernandez","17":"tag-craftbeer","18":"tag-edinburgh","19":"tag-homebrew","20":"tag-india-pale-ale","21":"tag-indiebeer","22":"tag-ipa","23":"tag-nelson-hops","24":"tag-nelson-sauvin","25":"tag-pale-ale","26":"tag-san-diego","27":"tag-sauvingon-blanc","28":"tag-terry-little","29":"tag-vista","30":"tag-west-coaster","31":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/bearroots_01.jpg?fit=1000%2C687&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-3E8","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}